What’s Draining Your Android Battery?

Awesome article if you, like myself, struggle with your phone's battery life. 😑📱🔋🔫

Click here: What’s Draining Your Android Battery?

Duolingo: A Great App for Language Learners

Cost: Free

    Duolingo is a popular language program 100% free of cost.  This program was first launched in 2012 by Luis von Ahn, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, and Severin Hacker.  They wanted to find a way to learn languages on their smartphones without paying the inordinate amount of $270+.  According to US TODAY, in 2013, Apple chose Duolingo as the app of the year with approximately 25 million users.  Duolingo is currently available at Google Play, Apple Itunes, Windows Store and on their official website, making it accessible to anyone with a smartphone, a computer or an Ipad.  This program is not only good for any individual but it is great for any language or ESL teacher.

    Duolingo has 27 language courses for English speakers.  It also has 8 language course for Spanish speakers including English, which makes it a great app for ESL teachers.  This platform also offers an opportunity for teachers to track the student’s progress with its Duolingo for Schools dashboard, in which the students create an account that is linked to the teacher.  The teacher can see how many times the student is consistently logging in, how many lessons and vocabulary stages they passed and the student’s level of proficiency making it a great blended learning tool.  So, how does it work?

    Once the app is downloaded into the individual’s smartphone or the website is accessed, they will have to create an account and they choose the language that they wish to learn.  It is recommended to take the placement test; however, they can start from the beginning, that is Basics 1. This level is for individuals with no previous knowledge in the target or desired language.  Duolingo offers immediate reward for those who use it.  It gives them gems and they can “buy” new vocabulary sessions with it.  It also has a nice balance between listening and speaking exercises.  

    Like many programs and platforms, Duolingo has its flaws.  Since this program is by levels, individuals are not exposed to natural sounding conversations and sentences until they reached advanced levels.  You are only exposed to phrases and sentences, which means that it has no natural sounding conversations or accents.  Last but not least, Duolingo does not offer any explanation of grammatical structures as part of its platform.  This can be somewhat confusing for the language learner.  

    To summarize, Duolingo has its bad side but, to me, has a great amount of rewards.  First, it’s free and easy to use.  It provides instant feedback and it is personalized.  It also gives you the opportunity to learn a new language and practice.  Additionally, it gives teachers an opportunity to provide students with a blended learning experience and space to track and assess their student’s progress.  

Try it:  www.duolingo.com

Teacher's dashboard:  https://schools.duolingo.com/

Google Forms in the Classroom: Less grading time

     Cost: FREE

          Google Forms is an extension of Google Drive, a file storage and sync service, to make surveys and web forms.  This tool allows anyone to easily create a form or a survey without the need to have any programming skills. It gives users the ability to choose from a variety of pre-designed templates or to customize the forms to their liking. Creating a form is very similar as creating a Google document.  The forms can be sent to anyone and you can see the results in a spreadsheet.  This tool is web based and completely free. It can also be very helpful for teachers.

        Google Forms is not only good to create questionnaires or web forms but it is a great tool to create tests or quizzes.  If you are a teacher who cares about the environment, Google Forms allows you to go paperless in your classroom; however, you can always print the assessments or surveys.  You may include multiple selection, grids, scales, time and/or questions where students have to write a paragraph or a small text. Google Forms also allows you to correct the assessments faster than hard copy tests, and you can actually download an add-on, create and assign a

 key, and the program correct the answers by itself (flubaroo).  This will definitely save time for any busy teacher (meaning ALL of us!).
   The tool is web based, which means that you can only use it through a web browser.  Since it is a Google tool, it works best on Google Chrome but it also works good on the rest.  I-pad users may download the Drive App and access the previously made forms; however, in order to edit them, they must access it through the web/browser (same with androids, etc.)  You have a variety of settings that you can manipulate, such as required questions, or skip questions, among others.  Once you create a form, you can edit it, you can change the settings and you can even deactivate the form.  You can also enable the form so the respondents can change their answers or see the results in a public link.  Google Forms also allows you to insert pictures, videos, URLs, time, dates, etc and you can also set up notifications.  Once the form is ready to share, you can send an email with the link or post the link and students (or other individuals) only need to click on the link to complete access it.  
          Teachers can introduce google forms to students by simply creating a short survey about the class, then have them complete a longer and/or complicated assessment as the marking period advances.  On the other hand, students can take more time completing the assessment because they can always go back to it.  They can also make the font bigger, which in a way gives them more freedom.  Students can answer the assessments through their Chromebooks, I-pads or smart phones which makes it easy to administer any assessment.   
          To summarize, Google Forms is a good tool to administer tests, quizzes and surveys in the class.  It is not as fancy as other tools but it is very helpful.  It is a web based tool that can be customized and it is easy to use.  Forms are online but can also be printable, which can also be helpful.   This is a simple tool that can be used in the classroom and can save a lot of time for teachers.

cons:  Students might be tempted to share the test with other groups or peers, or simply go online to
 try to find the responses but this is a quality (honesty) that you can promote in your class. Another con is that the new Google Forms format might be very simple and easy to use but the old format is more customizable.